Beyond the Control of God?

Beyond the Control of God?

Bloomsbury Studies in Philosophy of Religion Series Editor: Stewart Goetz Editorial Board: Thomas Flint, Robert Koons, Alexander Pruss, Charles Taliaferro, Roger Trigg, David Widerker, Mark Wynn Titles in the Series Freedom, Teleology, and Evil

by Stewart Goetz Image in Mind: Theism, Naturalism, and the Imagination

by Charles Taliaferro and Jil Evans Actuality, Possibility, and Worlds

by Alexander Robert Pruss God’s Final Victory: A Comparative Philosophical Case for Universalism

by John Kronen and Eric Reitan The Rainbow of Experiences, Critical Trust, and God

by Kai-man Kwan Thinking Through Feeling: God, Emotion and Passibility

by Anastasia Philippa Scrutton Philosophy and the Christian Worldview: Analysis, Assessment and Development edited by David Werther and Mark D. Linville Goodness, God and Evil

by David E. Alexander Well-Being and Theism: Linking Ethics to God

by William A. Lauinger Free Will in Philosophical Theology

by Kevin Timpe The Moral Argument (forthcoming)

by Paul Copan and Mark D. Linville

Beyond the Control of God? Six Views on the Problem of God and Abstract Objects Edited by Paul M. Gould

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Beyond the control of God? : six views on the problem of God and abstract objects / edited

by Paul M. Gould. pages cm. -- (Bloomsbury studies in philosophy of religion) Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-62356-541-1 (hardback : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-62356-365-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. God. 2. Abstraction. 3. Object (Philosophy) I. Gould, Paul M., 1971- editor of compilation.

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For Ethel … a loving wife who exemplifies in excelsis the property being patient.

For J. P. Moreland … it is his fault I am a platonist regarding abstract objects.

For Michael Bergmann and Jeffrey Brower … who introduced me to the problem of God’s relationship to abstract objects while in graduate school.

Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction to the Problem of God and Abstract Objects Paul M. Gould 1.

2.

3.

4.

God and Propositions Keith Yandell Response to Keith Yandell Paul M. Gould and Richard Brian Davis Greg Welty William Lane Craig Scott A. Shalkowski Graham Oppy Response to Critics Keith Yandell Modified Theistic Activism Paul M. Gould and Richard Brian Davis Response to Paul M. Gould and Richard Brian Davis Keith Yandell Greg Welty William Lane Craig Scott A. Shalkowski Graham Oppy Response to Critics Paul M. Gould and Richard Brian Davis Theistic Conceptual Realism Greg Welty Response to Greg Welty Keith Yandell Paul M. Gould and Richard Brian Davis William Lane Craig Scott A. Shalkowski Graham Oppy Response to Critics Greg Welty Anti-Platonism William Lane Craig Response to William Lane Craig Keith Yandell

ix 1 21 36 36 38 39 42 44 46 51 65 65 66 68 70 72 75 81 97 97 99 100 102 104 107 113 127 127

Contents

viii

5.

6.

Paul M. Gould and Richard Brian Davis Greg Welty Scott A. Shalkowski Graham Oppy Response to Critics William Lane Craig

128

God with or without Abstract Objects Scott A. Shalkowski Response to Scott A. Shalkowski Keith Yandell Paul M. Gould and Richard Brian Davis Greg Welty William Lane Craig Graham Oppy Response to Critics Scott A. Shalkowski

143

Abstract Objects? Who Cares! Graham Oppy Response to Graham Oppy Keith Yandell Paul M. Gould and Richard Brian Davis Greg Welty William Lane Craig Scott A. Shalkowski Response to Critics Graham Oppy

Bibliography Contributors Index

130 132 134 137

155 155 156 158 160 162 165 169 182 182 184 186 187 189 192 197 205 207

Acknowledgments

Parts of this book draw from previously published works. The Introduction and the Yandell, Gould/Davis, and Craig lead essays appeared in earlier form in a symposium on “God and Abstract Objects” within the pages of Philosophia Christi, the journal of the Evangelical Philosophical Society (www.epsociety.org). I am grateful to the Editor of Philosophia Christi who has granted non-exclusive, global rights for materials by Gould, Craig, Davis, and Yandell (vol. 13, no. 2, Winter 2011) to appear in this volume.

I am grateful to all the contributors for their hard work, collegiality, and insight, as we have grappled together with the knotty question of God’s relationship to abstracta.

This project is not for the faint of heart, and I have benefitted greatly from the vigorous yet irenic spirit of all participants in this book. I personally have learned a great deal, and have been challenged and pushed further than I could have hoped for at the outset in clarifying and defending my own preferred view (along with Richard Brian Davis) of God’s relationship to abstracta. I am grateful to Professor J. P. Moreland for first introducing me to metaphysics; it is his fault that I am a platonist regarding abstracta. I am also grateful to Michael Bergmann and Jeffrey Brower, two members of my dissertation committee, who presented a tight argument in the literature for the incoherence of the conjunction of two things I hold dear—traditional theism and platonism. Their sober argument provided the perfect target for me to begin exploring the problem of God and abstract objects. I am especially grateful to my friend Richard Brian Davis, my co-defender of modified theistic activism in this book. Rich has been a constant source of encouragement and joy. Finally and above all I am grateful to my wife Ethel; without her patience and support I cannot imagine this work, or much else I do, coming to completion.

Introduction to the Problem of God and Abstract Objects Paul M. Gould

The problem of God and abstract objects did not make the cut in Bertrand Russell’s 1912 The Problems of Philosophy. The Lord Russell knows that abstract objects are problem enough by themselves.1 Of course, Russell did not believe in God, so it goes without saying that there is no problem of God and abstract objects for him.2 It is only a problem for those philosophers who are also theists. Minimally, the problem is one of specifying the relationship between God and abstract objects. But, as we shall see, the problem runs much deeper. In this introduction, I shall attempt to bring clarity to the debate related to God and abstract objects by first explicating as precisely as possible the problem of God and abstract objects and then by imposing some order into the debate by classifying various contemporary answers to the problem, answers that are rigorously set out and debated in the interactive format of this book.

Statement of the problem What exactly is the problem of God and abstract objects? The term “God,” as traditionally understood, signifies a personal being who is worthy of worship. Stipulate that terms and predicates such as “property,” “proposition,” “relation,” “set,” “possible world,” “number,” and the like belong to the class “abstract object.” Suppose there are objects that satisfy the above terms and predicates. God exists and so do abstract objects. Prima facie, there is no problem here. So, we dig deeper: As a being worthy of worship, God’s non-existence is reasonably thought impossible. That is, God is best understood as a necessary being.

But, it is natural to think of abstract objects as necessary beings as well. Again, no obvious problem here—God is a necessary being and so are the members of the platonic horde.

But, as we dig deeper problems begin to surface. As a being worthy of worship, God, a necessary being, is typically thought to exist a se. That is, God is an independent and self-sufficient being. Further, God is typically thought to be supremely sovereign over all distinct reality in this sense: All reality distinct from God is dependent on God’s creative and sustaining activity. Thus, a traditional theist will endorse the following aseity-sovereignty doctrine AD:

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Beyond the Control of God? AD: (i) God does not depend on anything distinct from Himself for his existing, and (ii) everything distinct from God depends on God’s creative activity for its existing.3

But the view that there are abstract objects that also exist necessarily seems to be a repudiation of AD. The reason is this. It is natural to think that if something exists necessarily, it does so because it is its nature to exist. Thus, abstract objects exist independently of God, which is therefore a repudiation of AD and traditional theism.

Call the view that there exists a realm of necessarily existing abstract objects platonism. For many contemporary analytic philosophers, platonism offers a theoretically attractive way to understand the relationship between mind, language, and reality. Interestingly, platonism also continues to be the ontology of choice among many contemporary analytic representatives of traditional theism. Yet, as we can now see, there is a tension between traditional theism (which includes AD) and platonism, a tension that has been noticed since at least the time of Augustine.4 To state the tension explicitly, consider the following three jointly inconsistent claims (setting aside sets with contingent members): Inconsistent Triad (1) Abstract objects exist. [platonism]5 (2) If abstract objects exist, then they are dependent on God. [from AD] (3) If abstract objects exist, then they are independent of God. [platonist assumption]

All three claims can be independently motivated, but they form an inconsistent set. At most only two of the three claims in Inconsistent Triad can be true. Which claim should go? This question is difficult because the rejection of any of (1)–(3) leads to further problems. If (1) is rejected, the best solution (to many) to the problem of universals is abandoned and the age-old nominalism-realism debate ensues. All is not the same however. With the inclusion of God as an entity on the ontological books, the debate is pushed further along and familiar objections to either view lose some of their original force. Brian Leftow, who defends a view he calls theist concept nominalism, argues “if there were a God, this would have dramatic implications for the problem of universals.

In particular, it would (I believe) blunt the force of all standard arguments for realism” (2006, 325). Others are not so sure. Professor Weaver blames the fourteenth-century theist, William of Ockham and his nominalism as the root of contemporary culture’s decline: “the defeat of logical realism in the great medieval debate [on universals] was the crucial event in the history of Western culture; from this flowed those acts which issue now in modern decadence” (1984, 3). So, the rejection of (1), that is, platonism, is difficult for many contemporary analytic philosophers of religion: Platonic entities do all sorts of work and (to many) seem to be required for the best theory of the mind-world-language relationship. Thus inclined, the theist will want to be a platonic theist. Thus, the platonic theist can either reject the common understanding of traditional theism (that is, reject (2)) or reject a common platonist assumption regarding abstract objects (that is, reject (3)).

Claim (2) is well motivated given AD. If abstract objects exist and God is not an abstract object (that is, God is distinct from abstract objects), then it is natural to think

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God is the creator of abstract objects as well. And if God is the creator of abstract objects, it follows that abstract objects are dependent on God. Claim (2) also allows for abstract objects to exist as uncreated yet dependent entities, as long as they are not “distinct from” God. If “distinct from” simply means something like “not external to God’s borders,” then one might consistently endorse (2) and argue that abstract objects are uncreated entities that are somehow part of God. Such abstract objects would be dependent on God in some way, (say) perhaps a kind of constituent dependency, and AD is preserved. Alternatively, the platonic theist can reject claim (2) by arguing that traditional theism does not require the strong aseity-sovereignty doctrine AD. Perhaps the notion of God creating abstract objects is incoherent or impossible. Or perhaps AD is not entailed by the teachings of Scripture, or it does not apply to abstract objects.

Of course, the platonic theist could simply opt to be a nontraditional theist as well in her rejection of claim (2).

But, if claim (2) is rejected, the platonic theist runs into another problem, call it the ultimacy problem. Consider one kind of abstract object, property. If properties exist independently of God, and God has properties essentially, then God’s nature is explained by some other entity, and God is not ultimate.6 But, as Leftow states, “theists want all explanations to trace back to God, rather than through God to some more ultimate context” (1990, 587; cf. Plantinga 1980, 31–3). The same problem surfaces when considering other platonic entities as well. On the platonic story (for example), possible worlds exist independently of God and God’s existence is necessary because in each possible world, God exists. But then “this threatens to make God’s existence derive from items independent from Him: The worlds are there independently, that He is in all of them entails God’s existence” (Leftow 2009, 27). It seems that the platonic theist must bite a bullet and admit that God is not ultimate in explanation or existence if claim (2) is denied, yet this thesis appears to be a core intuition of the theist’s conception of God. What about a rejection of claim (3)? Perhaps platonic entities depend on God in some way for their existence and nature. If so, a question that naturally arises is, How is the dependency relation to be understood between two kinds of necessary beings?

The dependency relation cannot be mere logical dependence, where the existence of x entails the existence of y, but not vice versa. To see why, consider two necessary beings, x and y. Given that necessary beings could not fail to exist, then (necessarily) x exists and y exists are mutually entailing, in which case it is impossible for y to asymmetrically depend on x (again, if the dependency relation is merely a logical relation).

Rather the relation between x and y is one of mutual logical dependence. Call this the dependency problem.7 The dependency problem has led some contemporary philosophers to the view that it is logically impossible for any necessary being to asymmetrically depend on another.8 But, asymmetrical dependence need not be cashed out solely in terms of logical entailment. Taking our cue from AD, perhaps abstract objects are created by God.9 The fact that creation is a causal relation suggests the following dependency relations: Abstract objects are causally dependent on God. This causal dependency between God and abstract objects seems to be just what we are looking for—an

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Beyond the Control of God?

ontologically significant, asymmetrical or one-way relation of dependence running from each nondivine object to God. So, the platonic theist can maintain that God, as the creator of all distinct reality, eternally creates (that is, causes) abstract objects to exist and does so of necessity. Of course, in making this move, a hornet’s nest of issues arises: Is it metaphysically possible for God, or anything else, to create abstract objects?

Assuming that abstract objects are everlasting, is the notion of eternal causation coherent? Does co-eternality render God somehow less ultimate? What sense can be given to the notion of one necessary being (God) creating another necessary being?

What analysis of causation is required to give sense to the notion of God creating abstract objects?

Worse, even if the above questions could find acceptable answers, it appears that the resultant platonic theism, as many have suggested, is hopelessly incoherent, succumbing to the bootstrapping worry. Typically, the worry is advanced as follows: “God has properties. If God is the creator of all things, then God is the creator of His properties. But God cannot create properties unless He already has the property of being able to create a property. Thus, we are off to the races, ensnared in a vicious explanatory circle.”10 These questions and worries, and many more, reveal the apparent intractability of the dependency problem specifically, and the problem of God and abstract objects in general.

The problem of God and abstract objects is multilayered. Philosophy pushes many to platonism regarding abstract objects. Theology pushes many to endorse a strong reading of the aseity-sovereignty doctrine AD. The conjunction of platonism and traditional theism results in the tension described in Inconsistent Triad. Attempts to resolve the tension of Inconsistent Triad lead to additional problems: ● ● ●

Reject claim (1) and the problem of universals is of central concern; Reject claim (2) and the ultimacy problem is of central concern; Reject claim (3) and the dependency problem and bootstrapping worry are of central concern.

Thus, the deliverances of theology and philosophy threaten to wreck the (would-be) traditional theist, or alternatively, the (would-be) platonist, on the shoals of unorthodoxy or anti-realism. For the traditional theist, it seems that realism must be rejected. For the platonic theist, it seems that theistic orthodoxy must be redefined or rejected. It is not clear that anyone will be happy in the end. Still, hope dies hard. There have been a number of prominent contemporary attempts to navigate the waters of the problem of God and abstract objects. In the next section, I shall survey the contemporary literature and highlight recent efforts to place a stake in the sand on our central problem and its ancillary issues.

Some contemporary answers to the problem Depending on which claim of Inconsistent Triad is rejected at least four views can be discerned and advocates of each view ably defend themselves in this book. The first

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three views are realist (maybe even platonist if abstract object realism is endorsed), although for clarity, I shall only label the first view as platonism proper. The fourth view is nominalistic and anti-realist.

According to (the view I shall call) platonic theism, at least some abstract objects exist wholly distinct from God and are independent of God. Keith Yandell and his defense of theistic propositionalism is in this category, hence Yandell rejects (2). The defender of theistic activism argues that the platonic tradition can accommodate abstract objects being necessarily created by God, and thus dependent on God. Paul Gould and Richard Davis argue for a version of theistic activism, called modified theistic activism (MTA), and thus reject (3). The defender of divine conceptualism identifies abstract objects with various constituent entities of the divine mind which are uncreated yet dependent upon God. Greg Welty defends a version of divine conceptualism called theistic conceptual realism (TCR), and also (along with the theistic activist) rejects (3). The defenders of nominalism, in this book, William Lane Craig and Scott A. Shalkowski, reject claim (1)—there are no abstract objects, only concrete objects. Of course, one may argue, as Graham Oppy does, that the existence or nonexistence of abstract objects is irrelevant—it makes no philosophical difference—to God’s existence. If abstract objects exist, they do so independent of God (and claim (2) is rejected). If they do not exist, then there are no abstract objects (and claim (1) is rejected). Either way, there is no problem of God and abstract objects.

In order to provide as broad a framework as possible for the reader to navigate the contours of the debate, I shall survey the contemporary literature with respect to these four views, highlighting arguments in their favor and attempts at resolving the resultant problems. Once completed, I shall describe in more detail the position of each of our six lead essays, thus setting the stage for what follows.

Platonic theism The distinguishing feature of platonic theism is that there is a realm of abstract objects that exist independently of God. Some also exist wholly apart from God. Consider properties. Assuming an abundant theory of properties and a unified theory of predication (where all atomic sentences of the form “a is F ” denote a particular “a” and a property “F ”) then there will be two domains, or realms, of abstract objects: (Within the) divine substance and Plato’s heaven. Or again, consider propositions. According to the platonic theist, propositions exist wholly apart from God and are not to be identified with ideas in the divine mind. On this picture, to have a propositional thought, say a belief, is to stand in a certain special relationship to a specific proposition (Jubien 2001, 47). The platonic theist rejects claim (2) of Inconsistent Triad and those abstract objects wholly distinct from God are understood as independently existing beings.

Arguments against claim (2) and in support of platonic theism fall into three broad categories: (a) attempts to identify a token abstract object that in fact exists distinct

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from and independently of God; (b) attempts to show the impossibility or undesirability of created abstract objects; and (c) attempts to undercut the motivations for AD and thus show that the traditional theist is within the bounds of orthodoxy in denying claim (2).

In his 1970 book, On Universals, Nicholas Wolterstorff attempts to motivate the view that some properties must be excluded from God’s creative activity. He suggests that there exist properties such as being either true or false that are neither possessed

by God nor created by God (that is, a category (a) type argument). And if so, there are (at least some) abstract objects that exist distinct from God and independently of God and claim (2) ought to be rejected. Wolterstorff begins: Consider the fact that propositions have the property of being either true or false.

This property is not a property of God. But is it presupposed by the biblical writers that not all exemplifications of this property were brought into existence by God, and thus that it was not brought into existence by God. For the propositions ‘God exists’ and ‘God is able to create’ exemplify being true or false wholly apart from any creative activity on God’s part; in fact, creative ability on his part presupposes that these propositions are true, and thus presupposes that there exists such a property as being either true or false. (1970, 292)

Thus, alethic properties are, according to Wolterstorff, problematic for the defender of claim (2)—they are distinct from God and exist apart from God’s creative activity.

It seems the defender of claim (2) is not without a response. It could be argued that propositions (the possessors of alethic properties) are either uncreated but not distinct (from God) or distinct (from God) but created. Either way, claim (2) is upheld.

On the first story, alethic properties are uncreated, yet always and only possessed by propositions, now identified as divine thoughts. If so, then alethic properties (at least) are not distinct from God’s being.11 As Plantinga puts it: “truth is not independent of mind; it is necessary that for any proposition p, p is true only if it is believed, and if and only if it is believed by God” (1982, 68). So, even if the properties had by propositions (now construed as divine thoughts) are uncreated, they are not distinct from God. On the second story, it could be argued that alethic properties are distinct from God, yet eternally created by God. If so (and assuming the notion of eternal causation coherent), then it seems reasonable to think that the truth of God exists and God is able to create is necessarily coextensive with the existence of the properties being true and being either true or false. But then it is not clear that we have a clear case of a property (or abstract object) that requires the denial of claim (2).

More recently, Peter van Inwagen (2009) has argued for the stronger (and more general) claim that God, nor anyone else, can create abstract objects (that is, a category (b) type argument). Thus, if abstract objects are dependent upon God, it can’t be because God creates them. Abstract objects, says van Inwagen, are not the kind of things that can enter into causal relations. Thus, the quantifier “everything” in the statement “God is the creator of everything distinct from himself ” should be restricted to things that can enter into causal relations and the traditional theists need not endorse AD (or claim (2)). van Inwagen insists that abstract objects cannot enter

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into causal relations because no sense can be made regarding the notion of divinely created abstract objects. What he is after is the completion of (S ) For all x, if x is an abstract object, God caused x if …

in order to show what makes the causal fact both true and accessible enough for us to understand. van Inwagen considers two possible completions of (S ), the so-called Aristotelian view, which endorses the claim that all abstract objects exist in rebus and are created when God creates the concrete object in which they are a part; and the theistic activist view, which endorses the claim that abstract objects are caused by the divine activity of thinking. Since, according to van Inwagen, neither of these completions are successful, there is no acceptable completion of (S ).

Is it the case that there is no acceptable completion of (S) or that abstract objects cannot enter into causal relations? Plantinga thinks that abstract objects can enter into causal relations. When considering the epistemological objection to abstract objects, Plantinga suggests that if “propositions are divine thoughts,” then these objects can enter into the sort of causal relation that holds between a thought and a thinker, and we can enter into causal relation with them by virtue of our causal relation to God. It is therefore quite possible to think of abstract objects capable of standing in causal relations. (1993, 121)

Still, it is one thing to suggest how abstract objects could possibly stand in causal relations and quite another to provide an adequate completion of (S ). Yet, even that seems possible, and the defender of created abstracta, such as the theistic activist, is prepared to argue that it is in fact actual. For if causation is fundamentally about production, then God’s production of abstract objects is no more mysterious than God’s production of the concrete universe, or so it seems.12 Finally, need the traditional theist accept AD? Does Scripture, and because of Scripture, tradition, require the traditional theist to endorse AD? Wolterstorff provides arguments for thinking that the biblical writers did not endorse a wide scope reading of the doctrine of creation, where God is the creator of everything distinct from himself full-stop (that is, a category (c) type argument). Wolterstorff advances two lines of thinking to undercut the motivation toward a wide scope reading of the doctrine of creation. First, he suggests that it cannot “plausibly be supposed that the biblical writers … had universals in view in speaking of ‘all things’” (1970, 293). He rhetorically suggests that were universals in view, then they would have been mentioned.

Wolterstorff ’s second approach is to claim that the creator-creature distinction is invoked in Scripture for religious reasons and not theoretical, or metaphysical, reasons and thus it does not rule out a narrower understanding of the doctrine of creation.

How strong are Wolterstorff ’s arguments? Regarding the first, I have some sympathy with the suggestion. But, as Matthew Davidson (1999, 278–9) puts it, the biblical writers probably did not have quarks (or to use the most recent example, the strings of string theory) in mind when they addressed the subject of divine creation, still no traditional theists denies that quarks, or strings, if they exist, are distinct from God and created by God.

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But does such reasoning require that the theist ought to think the biblical writers had a wide scope in view, or merely that they may think it in view? Scott Davison thinks that this stronger (ought) claim is problematic since all the entities mentioned

by Davidson are contingent physical things and we know how the biblical authors would respond if asked whether they should be included, but with respect to abstract objects, “there is no way to know exactly what they would say in response to this query” (1991, 488).

Davison’s agnosticism might be a bit too convenient. A look at the article “all” (Greek: panta) in Kittel’s Theological Dictionary of the New Testament shows that while the meaning of “all things” is indeed religious, as Wolterstorff thinks, still its religious meaning seems to be dependent on the complete inclusion of all things whatsoever (1967, 5: 886–96). Thus, prima facie, the most natural, simple, and theoretically unified reading of the all things passage seems to favor a wide scope reading and AD.13 Still, I do not see how the relevant Scripture passages require such a reading.14

Theistic activism Theistic activism locates the platonic horde within the mind of God as created, and thus dependent, entities. Properties and relations are identified with divine concepts, and the rest of the platonic apparatus is built up from there. Propositions are just divine thoughts. Numbers, sets, and possible worlds are also explicated in terms of properties and relations (that is, divine concepts) and propositions (that is, divine thoughts). Importantly, God creates all reality distinct from God, including the entire platonic horde.

The most prominent version of theistic activism is that of Morris and Menzel. In their view, called absolute creationism, “all properties and relations are God’s concepts, the products, or perhaps better, the contents of a divine intellective activity… .

Unlike human concepts, then, which are graspings of properties that exist ontologically distinct from and independent of those graspings, divine concepts are those very properties themselves” (1986, 166).15 Thus, divine creation of abstract objects is understood as eternal, necessary, and absolute: God necessarily and eternally creates all abstract objects whatsoever. Further, since God exemplifies a nature, understood as a bundle of essential properties, absolute creationism entails that God creates His own nature.

Not many have been willing to follow Morris and Menzel down the activist road, or at least completely down the activist road. Perhaps the closest thing to an endorsement of theistic activism is from Plantinga, a theist and platonist par excellence who has cautiously endorsed the view hinting that if something like it were true, then “abstract objects would be necessary beings that are nevertheless causally dependent upon something else” (1992, 309). More recently, David Baggett and Jerry Walls (2011) have appropriated the insight of the activist to specify God’s relationship to goodness, and Paul Gould and Richard Davis argue in this book for a kind of limited activism

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with respect to concepts and propositions, but not properties and relations. Most who consider it seem to think that theistic activism suffers from at least two minor problems and one major problem.

The first minor worry relates to the notion of creating eternal beings. Intuitively, creation seems to involve bringing something into being, and bringing something into being seems to involve temporal becoming, or an absolute beginning of existence.

Plantinga shares this intuition: “a thing is created only if there is a time before which it does not exist” (1974, 169). I too share this intuition when contingent beings are in view. However, my intuition is not as clear when considering necessary beings, which, if they exist, exist at all times (or timelessly exist). In general, to prove that one necessarily existent being could not asymmetrically depend on another would be a difficult task (van Inwagen, 1993, 108). Perhaps there are two notions of creation that need explication: One for contingent beings and one for necessary beings. An explication of creation for necessary beings should not concern itself with issues related to coming into being (since God is not temporally prior to abstract objects and vice versa), but rather it should be causal or explanatory: For example, God is the eternal generating cause of abstract objects. For the activist, God is the eternal generating cause in virtue of the divine intellect.16 This first worry can be set aside.

The second worry for the activist concerns the necessity of creation. It is argued, for example by Bill Craig, that if we expand the meaning of creation so as to make any dependent being the object of God’s creation, then we have radically subverted God’s freedom with respect to creating… . His freedom is restricted to creation of the tiny realm of concrete objects alone. The vast majority of being flows from him with an inexorable necessity independent of God’s will. (Copan and Craig 2004, 175–6)

Simply stated, the objection is that if we expand our explication of creation to include necessary beings, then God’s freedom in creation is seriously hindered. But this is not so clear. Perhaps, as Gould and Davis argue in their defense of modified theistic activism (MTA), God freely (and eternally) thinks up all possible creatures and all possible states of affairs. In this creative act, God delimits all modal facts—all possible individuals and possible worlds are set—in virtue of God’s intellectual activity.

Concepts are divine ideas; propositions (and possible worlds) are divine thoughts.

Here is the interesting part: In addition to God’s spontaneous creation of all possible creatures via His producing divine concepts and thoughts, God creates, of necessity, a platonic horde of properties and relations that will play the role of structure making in any actual concrete universe God creates. This creating of the platonic horde is logically posterior to the Biggest Bang, and sets the stage for the Big Bang (that is, the creation of the actual contingent universe). If so, divine freedom is preserved (or so it seems) since in the first logical moment of the Biggest Bang, God spontaneously creates all possibilities even if He creates the corresponding properties and relations of necessity in virtue of the divine will.

Alternatively, the activist could maintain that God is not free with respect to the creation of abstracta, and argue that, still, this is not a problem the traditional theist

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should care about. Morris states, “the traditional view is that God is a free creator of our physical universe: He was free to create it or to refrain from creating it; he was free to create this universe, a different universe, or no such universe at all” (Morris and Menzel 1986, 170). Craig assumes without argument that the traditional account of divine freedom to create extends to all existent entities other than God, not just contingent entities. It should be no surprise that divine freedom is interestingly different than human freedom, and perhaps one of these interesting differences is that God is not free with respect to one aspect of His creation, that is, the necessarily existing abstract objects. God is not free with respect to the creation of abstract objects, but as creator, He is responsible for their existence. Still, Craig’s claim that these beings flow with an “inexorable necessity independent of God’s will” does seem problematic since it is natural to think that the causal buck in creation stops with the divine will, not the divine intellect. This worry does not appear insurmountable for the activist—for the intellect and will are tightly integrated in God—still, it might serve to steer the theist toward other accounts of divine creating (e.g. where God is the creator of abstract objects in virtue of the will)17 or divine conceptualism (where abstract objects are uncreated yet dependent on God).

The main problem with Morris and Menzel’s theistic activism is that it appears logically incoherent. In short, it succumbs to the bootstrapping worry. Many (including myself) think this problem fatal for the absolute creationism of Morris and Menzel.

But I am baffled by their failure to take an obvious way out of the incoherency charge.

Why not hold that it is only properties distinct from God that are created by God? On this suggestion, all of God’s essential properties (that is, divine concepts) exist a se as a brute fact within the divine mind, and it is only those properties that are not essentially exemplified by God (that is, necessarily satisfied in God) that are created by God. Morris’s answer is that “aside from the fact that no such selective exclusion would work in the first place, this move would amount to scrapping the whole project of theistic activism and abandoning the view of absolute creation” (1986, 172). But, why would no such selective exclusion of God’s properties work in the first place? Craig makes this objection a bit more perspicuous when he claims that the move under consideration “would introduce an ad hoc selectivity concerning what properties are or are not created by God (especially evident with respect to properties shared by contingent beings)” (Copan and Craig 2004, 176).

Yet it seems that this move would be ad hoc only if there were no independent motivations for thinking abstract objects exist. Now, if there are independent reasons to think platonism true and one is also a traditional theist, then it is not ad hoc to modify one’s account of platonism (that is, platonic theism) in light of problems that arise in an initial formulation of the theory (nor is it ad hoc to modify one’s understanding of traditional theism either). This move is similar to those made in theory construction in science where new evidence leads to theory modification. Usually, the newly modified theory is isomorphic to some part of the original, modified in such a way as to maintain the virtues of the old (often the bulk of the old theory) while still accommodating the new evidence. At any rate, it is certainly not ad hoc to think that God does not create His own nature given the commonsensical assumption that no

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being is, or can be, responsible for the nature it has (Rowe 2004, 151–2). As I have argued elsewhere, the bootstrapping worry can be avoided for the platonic theist (who is a theistic activist) if the following two claims are endorsed: (a) God’s essential Platonic properties (that is, divine concepts that necessarily apply to God) exist a se (that is, they are neither created nor sustained by God, yet they inhere in the divine substance, the divine mind even); and (b) substances are Aristotelian (Gould 2011, 56–7).

In summary, while the activist view has few adherents, it is still a viable option as long as the position of absolute creationism is abandoned. And it was never required, even for Morris and Menzel—as they repeatedly (and rightly) noted—it is only everything “distinct from” God that exists as a result of God’s creative activity.

Divine conceptualism According to divine conceptualism, abstract objects are identified with various constituent entities of the divine mind and are uncreated yet dependent upon God. Just how the dependency relation is to be understood is an open question. As uncreated, abstract objects do not depend on God for their existence or nature. Still, taking our cue from what has been said above, it could be argued that the divine substance is the final cause of its constituent parts and thus abstract objects do causally depend (in one sense) on God. Or alternatively, abstract objects (understood as divine ideas or whatever) could simply be understood as constituently dependent on God. One interesting version of divine conceptualism is the theistic conceptual realism (TCR) of Greg Welty.18 According to Welty, abstract objects are those constituent entities of the divine mind that perform a certain function within the created order.

For example, the concept of a “universal” is the concept of a thing that plays the ontological role of explaining attribute agreement and grounding the truth of atomic sentences of the form “a is F ” (Welty 2004, 57). The concept of a “proposition” is the concept of a thing that plays the role of bearer of truth values and is what is asserted by the standard use of declarative sentences. Thus, realism holds at the human level and conceptualism at the divine level. That is, relative to finite minds, abstract objects exist as realistically as any platonic entity—they exist apart from us and enjoy multipleinstantiability. But abstract objects do not exist realistically for God, in the sense that they exist apart from or over and above God. Rather, their existence is purely conceptual.

Considerations related to some kinds of abstract objects seem to push the theist toward endorsing divine conceptualism, whereas consideration of other kinds of abstract objects seem to push in the direction of platonic theism. As noted above, a common intuition is that truths are somehow connected to minds, and this fact pushes in the direction of thinking that propositions and possible worlds are best thought of as divine thoughts (or groupings of divine thoughts). As Plantinga says, the idea that abstract objects exist independently of minds and their noetic activity is “realism run

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Beyond the Control of God?

amok” (1982, 68). Perhaps numbers and sets too are best thought of as the product of God’s (mental) collecting activity (Menzel 1987). Considerations related to these kinds of abstract objects push the theist in the direction of divine conceptualism.

On the other hand, considerations related to the nature of properties and property possession push toward a kind of platonic theism. Consider that a primary role of platonic properties is that of making or structuring reality. As George Bealer observes, “[properties] play a fundamental constitutive role in the structure of the world” (1998a, 268). Alternatively, concepts are typically thought to play a mediating role between mind and world (Willard 1999). If this picture is correct, then the defender of divine conceptualism (and theistic activism) calls upon divine concepts to play at least two roles: that of mediator and maker. For the created realm, this does not appear problematic. But, when considering the divine substance, the needed account of how God both exemplifies the property being divine and possesses the (same) concept/ property as a constituent of the divine thought that He is divine appears unlovely and forced.19 Perhaps considerations of elegance, if nothing else, serve to push the theist toward platonic theism (or MTA as Gould and Davis argue in this volume) over divine conceptualism when properties are in view. And the dialectic continues. The defender of divine conceptualism could, in turn, cry: Tu quoque! Consider the picture as a whole. On divine conceptualism, the divine substance (and all its constituent metaphysical parts) exists a se, within the borders of God, and brings into being the entire created order at the “moment” of creation. Such a picture is theoretically simpler and more elegant than the platonic view of reality in which the platonic horde exists co-eternal and distinct from God (created or not) sans contingent creation.

Perhaps the lesson is a familiar one: When working out one’s mature metaphysical theory, a cost-benefit analysis will be required and each view will enjoy particular benefits and swallow particular costs.

Nominalism According to nominalism, there are no abstract objects, only concrete objects. There are brown dogs, but not the abstract property being brown; there are tables and chairs with the same number of legs, but not abstract numbers; and so on. Nominalism is not to be understood necessarily as the rejection of properties, relations, propositions, possible worlds, and so on, rather, what is required of those who believe in such entities is that they think of them as concrete objects.20 Thus, on nominalism, the problem of God and abstract objects is dissolved—there are no abstract objects (that is, claim (1) of Inconsistent Triad is rejected). God alone exists a se and creates all concrete reality distinct from Himself (and the concrete reality is all the reality there is).

Nominalism’s appeal is readily seen—it apparently offers a quick and happy solution to the problem of God and abstract objects. Peter van Inwagen goes so far as to argue

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that there is a presumption of nominalism and thus one should be a nominalist if one can get away with it.21 So, can one get away with being a nominalist? And further, is it really the case that if one can, one should to be a nominalist? I say, a traditional theist can be a nominalist—this much seems clear. What is not clear by my lights, is whether she should be a nominalist. Specifically, it is not clear that nominalism offers the best theory of the mind-language-world nexus.

Consider the case of divine predication. How is the atomic sentence “God is divine” nominalistically understood? One nominalistic friendly answer, articulated

by Bergmann, Brower, and Leftow, is to endorse the doctrine of divine simplicity. The predicate being divine does not refer to an attribute that God exemplifies, rather it is truly ascribed to God on some other grounds.22 But the nominalist need not endorse the doctrine of divine simplicity to account for divine predication. For example, in this volume, Bill Craig argues that there are a number of nominalist options that can do the trick (without appeal to divine simplicity). The choices, argues Craig, center around the acceptance or rejection of Quine’s metaontology, specifically Quine’s criterion for ontological commitment—roughly, that one is ontologically committed to the value of any variable bound by the existential quantifier in a first-order symbolization of a true, canonically-formulated statement. If one accepts the Quinean criterion, then the nominalist can endorse fictionalism (in this volume Shalkowski and Oppy think this an attractive option). On the fictionalist story, “abstract objects are more or less useful fictions” (Copan and Craig 2004, 180) and “God’s concrete condition [is] accurately described by the Platonist’s ascription of various properties to God” (ibid., 185) without admitting abstract objects into one’s ontology. If the nominalist rejects the Quinean criterion, then there are a number of options (noneism, neutral logic, substitutional quantification, figuralism)23 that can be employed in explicating the existential quantifier and divine predication can (again, says Craig) be safely analyzed without postulating abstract objects.

Assume that a traditional theist can be a nominalist along the above lines (or something like it). Ought she be a nominalist? Arguments in support of this stronger claim fall into two broad categories: (a) theoretical considerations related to ontological economy (and often an appeal to Ockham’s razor); and (b) the claim that there is a presumption of nominalism and thus nominalism wins by default if one can get away with it.

Leftow (2006, 2012) has advanced an argument that nominalism is the most attractive position for the theist since it allows her to economize on kinds of entities (that is, an argument from category (a)). Leftow thinks that nontheistic versions of nominalism (for example, trope theories, human concept-nominalism, human predicate-nominalism, likeness-nominalism and set-nominalism) are either obviously false or less plausible than platonism. Platonism is a better theory—still, it is a strange theory, one that Ockham bids us to avoid if possible. Thus, if divine concepts are already within one’s ontology, as they are for the theist, she ought, in light of Ockham’s razor, allow them to do as much work as possible before introducing other entities into her ontology. If it can be established that divine concepts, understood as mental particulars, can do the work typically ascribed to platonic entities, then “it is simple

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parsimony to let divine concepts do as much work as they can once they’re in one’s metaphysic” (Leftow 2006, 326). Thus, it is in virtue of ontological economy that Leftow thinks theistic concept nominalism better than platonism.

Assume Leftow’s theistic concept nominalism is in fact as explanatorily adequate as platonism. Does it follow that (because of Ockham’s razor) theists ought to be nominalists? Not obviously so. Ontological economy (in terms of number of kinds of entities) would need to be balanced with ideological economy (in terms of the number of primitive facts within one’s theory). Further, theoretical virtues other than economy— accuracy, scope, fruitfulness, and perhaps more—need to be taken into consideration in theory construction (Shalkowski 1997). Thus, at the end of the day, it could turn out that Platonism, on balance, comes out ahead of Leftow’s nominalism. With respect to economy, it could turn out that platonism’s explanatory simplicity (in terms of less primitives) outweighs any (putative) gains in ontological simplicity on nominalism.24 Craig has recently advanced arguments of the category (b) type. Craig provides two reasons why there is a presumption of nominalism (over platonism) for the traditional theist. First, Craig exposits (and endorses) van Inwagen’s argument from queerness: For it is very puzzling that objects should fall into two so radically different and exclusive categories as abstract and concrete. It would be much more appealing to suppose that one of the categories is empty. But concrete objects are indisputably real and well-understood, in contrast to abstract objects. So we should presume that abstract objects do not exist. (Craig 2011b, 49)

Secondly, an argument from theology: The chief theological failing of Platonism and therefore the reason for its unacceptability for orthodox theists is that Platonism is incompatible with the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo and so fundamentally compromises divine aseity… .

An orthodox Christian theist, then, cannot be a Platonist … . [Thus] we have very strong incentives, indeed, for rejecting [the claim that there are abstract objects] in favor of some sort of Nominalistic view of abstract objects. (ibid., 47)

Thus, Craig thinks there is a presumption of nominalism (in philosophy in general) and certainly for the traditional theist.

One is not sure what to think about Craig’s argument from queerness against abstract objects. Certainly such arguments can go both ways: Concrete objects such as trees, dogs, and chairs might not be queer to the man on the street, but they certainly can begin to sound queer in the hands of the metaphysician. Questions that quickly arise include: Do physical objects perdure or endure? Are they three-dimensional or four-dimensional? How does one solve the problem of material constitution? Attempts to provide a metaphysical assay of concrete objects quickly reveals that, contra Craig’s claim, even concrete objects are not “indisputably real and well-understood.”

They might turn out to be rather queer themselves. Craig’s first reason in favor of a presumption of nominalism does not appear persuasive to the anti-nominalist.

The antinominalist would also push back on Craig’s second argument. It could be argued that the presumption is not for nominalism. Rather, the biblical evidence

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(and the Nicene tradition) motivate, or provide prima facie support for, or entail a presumption for, AD. As we have seen, theistic activism and divine conceptualism can accommodate AD. Thus, there is no presumption in favor of nominalism. Nominalism does not win by default. It must be shown superior on other grounds. The open question then is this: Is nominalism explanatorily superior (not merely equal) to realist accounts of various phenomena? It is not clear that it is and thus it is not clear that nominalism represents the best option for the traditional theist, and certainly not the only option.

The essays, the authors The stage is now set. My goal has been to provide a framework and whet your appetite for the discussion that follows. Our authors include some of the leading thinkers and young rising stars in metaphysics, philosophy of religion, and philosophical theology.

They have published many technical books and journal articles on this topic and related topics. I can’t think of a more qualified group of people to address this topic.

Each author will present an essay in which he argues for his view of the relationship between God and abstract objects. Each essay is followed by a brief response from each other author. Finally, each author will have a chance to respond to the criticisms of his view that the five coauthors raise. The format of the book allows for a substantive interaction between philosophers holding various positions—realist/ nominalist, theist/atheist/agnostic, perfect being theologians, and nonperfect being theologians—on God’s relationship to abstract objects, if there be any (or, alternatively, if there be any God). All that is left is for me to introduce the authors and their essays.

In the lead off essay, Keith Yandell argues for a kind of platonic theism. His essay focuses on one kind of abstract object—propositions—and argues that, if they exist at all, they exist of necessity regardless of God’s modal status. If God necessarily exists, and since, according to Yandell, theistic activism turns out to be untenable, either theistic ideaism is true, the view that propositions are to be identified with the content of God’s thoughts, or theistic propositionalism is true, the view that there are propositions but they do not depend for their existence upon God (and neither does God depend for existence on propositions). If God contingently exists, then theistic propositionalism is true. Neither the Biblical evidence nor an appeal to our modal intuitions will do anything to resolve the question of which view is true—still, Yandell claims, either view is perfectly compatible with theism.

Next Paul M. Gould and Richard Brian Davis argue that abstract objects distinct from God exist and are the product of God’s creative activity. Some abstract objects are to be identified with various constituents of the divine mind that are produced via intellectual activity: Concepts are divine ideas; propositions are divine thoughts.

Hence, Gould and Davis argue for a kind of theistic activism. But it is a modified theistic activism (MTA) in two ways. First, some abstract objects—namely, properties and relations—are not to be identified with constituents of the divine mind. Rather,

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these abstract objects exist wholly apart from God’s being, in Plato’s heaven even, yet are created by God in virtue of the divine will. Second, God’s essential properties exist within the divine (Aristotelian) substance a se. In this way, Gould and Davis think they have successfully avoided the bootstrapping worry, addressed the dependency problem, and upheld AD. Greg Welty argues that divine thoughts “play the role” of abstract objects with respect to created reality yet exist as uncreated entities within the divine mind. In order to motivate his preferred version of divine conceptualism, which he calls theistic conceptual realism (TCR), Welty focuses on propositions and possible worlds and identifies six conditions for a successful ontological account of abstract objects.

Given the objectivity of abstract objects, realism is true. Given the intentionality and simplicity of abstract objects, conceptual realism is true. Given the necessity, plenitude, and relevance of abstract objects, theistic conceptual realism is true. Since no other theory of abstract objects satisfies each of these six conditions except TCR, as an added bonus, we have an argument for God from the reality of abstract objects.

The remaining three authors are less enthusiastic about the possibility of a realist theory of abstract objects. Next, William Lane Craig argues that realism regarding abstract objects (what he calls platonism) is neither theologically tenable nor philosophically required for the traditional theist. Theologically, the postulation of infinities of uncreated, co-eternal abstract objects that exist independently of God violates God’s sovereignty and aseity. Philosophically, the main argument in support of abstract object realism, the so-called Indispensability Argument, is plausibly false. Thus, the anti-platonist perspective on God and abstract objects is a viable contender for truth, and it warrants further investigation on the part of the traditional theist.

Scott A. Shalkowski picks up where Craig left off by first arguing that there are insufficient reasons for thinking that there are abstract objects. He parts company with Craig, however, in arguing, secondly, that even if there are abstract objects, there are no theological problems that arise as a result. Necessities are the end point for explanation and if there are necessarily existing abstract objects, it makes sense to suggest that God somehow explains them or that they impose “limits” on God. Hence, God sovereignly exists whether or not abstract objects do.

In the final essay, Graham Oppy approaches the question of God and abstract objects from a slightly different vantage point than the other contributors. Instead of trying to understand how God might be related to abstracta, Graham is interested in whether the reality of abstracta provides differential support, one way or another, to decide between theism and naturalism. His conclusion is that it matters not; plausible accounts of abstracta, whether realist or fictional, favor neither theory. If correct, then theists who think there are straightforward arguments from abstracta to God are mistaken—abstract objects exist necessarily—it is impossible that anything be their creator, or ground, or source. Abstract objects exist, if at all, with or without God, it makes no difference.25

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Notes 1 Russell endorses platonism in his 1912 work, arguing that “all truths involve universals” and even if qualitative universals are denied, relational universals must be admitted. In fact, he argues that it is the failure of many philosophers to realize that verbs and prepositions (in addition to substantives and adjectives) denote universals that has led to much confusion over the debate. See Russell (1997).

2 In his preface, Russell notes that he will confine himself to those problems of philosophy about which he thinks it “possible to say something positive and constructive, since merely negative criticism seemed out of place” (ibid., 5).

Undoubtedly, given his belief in God’s noexistence, the problem of God and abstract objects in not a problem in which it is possible to say something positive and constructive (for Russell).

3 Why think AD true? There are at least four sources of motivation to cull support for AD: (1) Perfect Being Theology, (2) Scripture, (3) tradition, and (4) the notion of worship worthiness.

4 When considering the nature of creation, Augustine notes “God was not fixing his gaze upon anything located outside Himself to serve as a model when he made the things he created, for such a view is blasphemous” (On Eighty-Three Diverse Questions, question 46, “De Ideis,” quoted in Wolterstorff 1970, 280). Aquinas nicely states this tension between platonism and the Christian faith as well: “it seems contrary to the faith to hold, as the Platonists did, that the Forms of things exist in themselves” (Summa Theologiae 1.84.5).

5 Henceforth, the term “platonism” shall be used to refer to the view that abstract objects necessarily exist (and have objective ontological status). Many platonists understand their position to entail that such objects enjoy independent existence as well. I hope to show that such independence need not be thought to follow from such abstract object realism. Thus, as Inconsistent Triad makes clear, I draw a distinction between platonism (that is, claim (1)) and a common platonic assumption (that is, claim (3)).

6 According to Plantinga (1974, 70–7) and Plantinga (1980, 7), an entity x’s nature just is the conjunction of x’s essential properties.

7 For more on the dependency problem, see Richard Brian Davis (2001, 1–6).

8 See e.g. Keith Yandell (1984, 49–55) and Yandell (1993, 343).

9 Other alternatives are that abstract objects are uncreated yet sustained by God in existence or uncreated yet constituently dependent on God. 10 I think the most rigorous argument against the compatibility of platonism and traditional theism is Bergmann and Brower (2006). Other incompatibility arguments can be found in William Lane Craig and Paul Copan (2004, 167–95); Matthew Davidson (1999); Scott Davison (1991);and Brian Leftow (1990). For detailed responses to such incompatibility arguments, see Gould (2010). Bootstrapping worries can be generated when considering abstracta other than properties as well.

See e.g. Paul Gould (2011a), where the bootstrapping worry surfaces when divine concepts (understood as abstract objects) are employed.

11 That is, assuming divine thoughts are essentially possessed by God, then properties of divine thoughts are also essentially possessed by God. 12 For a robust defense of the claim that God can create abstract objects, see Gould 2013.

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13 See also Leftow (2012, 61–5).

14 Other relevant passages include Jn 1.3, Rom. 11.36, Eph. 3.9, Col. 1.16–17, Rev. 4.11, Ps. 103.19–22, and 1 Cor. 8.6. For an excellent discussion of theory construction in theology, see Shalkowski (1997), where it is argued that the Biblical text is often underdetermined and the theoretician must employ other criteria in constructing a mature theological (or philosophical) theory, including accuracy, scope, simplicity, fruitfulness, and more. Thus, it is open to the platonic theist to argue that her theory, while (say) light on scope and simplicity is heavy on accuracy and fruitfulness and thus is a live contender for an acceptable theory of God and abstracta. In fact, something like this dialectic is typical of the case provided for platonic theism.

15 There is some confusion in the literature about just what the theistic activism of Morris and Menzel is and is not, as the following sampling makes clear. First, a proposed description of theistic activism: Theistic Activism (TA) = the view that (1) necessary abstract objects exist; (2) depend on God’s creative activity and; (3) are identified with various constituents of the divine mind.

The question is whether or not (3) holds true. Next, a sampling of quotations from the literature regarding theistic activism, in addition to the quotation cited in the body of the text: [A] From Menzel: “PRPs [properties, relations, and propositions], as abstract products of God’s ‘mental life,’ exist at any given moment because God is thinking them; which is to just say that he creates them” (1987, 368).

[B] From Copan and Craig: “Morris and Menzel present their view as an updated version of the Augustinian theory of divine ideas and, hence, as a version of what we (below) call conceptualism. Nevertheless, although that is their intention, they continue to speak of the products of God’s intellectual activity as abstract entities, which suggests the interpretation that abstract objects are created things external to God and caused by divine intellectual activity” (2004, 174–5n. 10).

[C] From Bergmann and Brower: “Contemporary philosophers now typically refer to this Augustinian view as ‘theistic activism’, since according to it, the existence of properties and propositions is due to the activity of the divine intellect: properties are divine concepts resulting from God’s acts of conceptualizing and propositions are divine thoughts due to God’s acts of thinking or considering” (2006, 363).

[D] From Matthew Davidson: “Some have contended that (necessarily existing) abstracta depend on God for their existence and natures (their essential properties). Let’s call such a view ‘theistic activism’” (1999, 277).

The quote from Morris and Menzel cited in the text above, as well as [A] and [C], seem to support (1)–(3). [B] suggests that (3) is not actually the view of Morris and Menzel, and [D] restricts TA to (1)–(2) only and not the conjunction of (1)–(3).

What this reveals is that there is some inconsistency in how TA is defined and utilized in the literature. For our purposes, we shall mean by TA the conjunction of (1)–(3) as this seems to most fully represent the views of Morris and Menzel.

16 But it need not be. It seems possible to argue that God is the eternal generating cause of abstract objects in virtue of the will, in which case theistic activism would be

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18 19 20

21 22

23 24 25

19

abandoned, but not the notion of God creating abstract objects. Or alternatively, it could be argued that abstract objects emanate from the divine being, in which case they are still the product of God, but not (obviously) in virtue of His intellect or will.

As Bergmann and Cover (2006) suggest, it is plausible to hold that God is not free, nor forced, but still responsible for His actions (and hence thankworthy) in virtue of being an agent cause.

See Greg Welty (2004) and (2006). The former applies TCR to properties, the latter to propositions and possible worlds.

See Gould (2011a) for an account of how this (unlovely) assay of the divine substance would be understood.

See Rodriguez-Pereyra (2011) for more on the realism/nominalism and abstract/ concrete distinctions and their relation. As Rodriguez-Pereyra points out, one can be a nominalist in one sense (the denial of abstract objects) and still endorse universals, as the Aristotelian realist does. Unless it is specified as otherwise, in this volume, we shall understand “nominalism” to mean “only concrete objects exist.”

In Peter van Inwagen (2004). Of course, as a platonist, van Inwagen does not think one can get away with being a nominalist.

Bergmann and Brower (2006) opt for a truthmaker theory of divine predication, where divine predications are explained in virtue of a truthmaker (that is, the divine substance), without requiring the positing of an exemplifiable. Leftow (2006) is more sanguine: “I suspect that no theory of attributes [can adequately account for the predicate being divine], and the proper conclusion to draw from this is that it is not an attribute at all. Whatever one makes of it, then, it will turn out to be something surprising.” In Leftow (2012, 307) the surprise is revealed, and we’ve seen it before in Aquinas: “God does not have an attribute of deity distinct from Himself, … ‘God’s essence is His existence’—that is, … what makes it true that God has His essence is identical with what makes it true that He exists.”

For a more detailed discussion of each of these options, see Craig (2011b).

For a helpful discussion of how to balance ontological and ideological economy (with respect to explanatory adequacy) see Loux (2006, 61) and Oliver (1996).

An earlier version of this essay can be found in Gould (2011b). Earlier versions of the lead essays by Yandell, Gould/Davis, and Craig can be found in Yandell (2011), Davis (2011), and Craig (2011a).

Contributors

William Lane Craig is a Research Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, California. He earned a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Birmingham, England, before taking a doctorate in theology from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany, where he was for two years a Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung. Prior to his appointment at Talbot he spent seven years at the Higher Institute of Philosophy of the Katholike Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. He has authored or edited over 30 books, including The Kalam Cosmological Argument; Divine Foreknowledge and Human Freedom; Theism, Atheism, and Big Bang Cosmology; and God, Time, and Eternity, as well as over a hundred articles in professional journals of philosophy and theology, including The Journal of Philosophy, American Philosophical Quarterly, Philosophical Studies, Philosophy, and British Journal for Philosophy of Science.

Richard Brian Davis is Professor and Chair of Philosophy at Tyndale University in Toronto, Canada. He is the author or editor of four books, including The Metaphysics of Theism and Modality (Peter Lang, 2001). He has published numerous articles in metaphysics and philosophy of religion in such places as Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Religious Studies, Acta Analytica, Philosophia Christi, The Modern Schoolman, and Axiomathes.

Paul M. Gould is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Christian Apologetics at Southwest Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. He is the editor of four books, including Is Faith in God Reasonable? Debates in Philosophy, Science, and Rhetoric (Routledge, forthcoming). He has published articles in metaphysics and philosophy of religion in such places as Philo, Faith and Philosophy, Philosophia Christi, Axiomathes, and Metaphysica.

Graham Oppy is Professor of Philosophy at Monash University. He is author of: Ontological Arguments and Belief in God; Philosophical Perspectives on Infinity; Arguing about Gods; Reading Philosophy of Religion (with Michael Scott); and The Best Argument against God; and editor (with Nick Trakakis) of The History of Western Philosophy of Religion.

Scott A. Shalkowski teaches at the University of Leeds. His work has been largely in metaphysics, including the philosophy of logic and mathematics, and the philosophy of religion. He has published in journals such as Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Synthese, Mind, Journal of Philosophy, and The Philosophical Review.

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Contributors

Greg Welty received his DPhil. in Philosophical Theology from Oriel College, University of Oxford, focusing on the relation between God and abstract objects.

He serves at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (Wake Forest, NC) as both associate professor of philosophy and coordinator for the MA program in philosophy of religion.

Keith E. Yandell (BA, MA, Wayne State University; PhD Ohio State University); Lecturer (OSU, 1965); Assistant Professor (1966–71), Associate (1971–4), Professor (1975–2010) at University of Wisconsin. He is Julius R. Weinberg Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at UW and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy of Religion at TEDS (2000-present). He has written Basic Issues in the Philosophy of Religion (Allyn and Bacon), Christianity and Philosophy (Eerdmans), Hume’s “Inexplicable Mystery” (Temple University Press), The Epistemology of Religious Experience (Cambridge University Press), and Buddhism: A Christian Exploration (Inter Varsity Press), in Great Britain Spirituality Without God (Paternoster), as well as numerous articles and book chapters.

Index

absolute creationism 8–11, 40, 68–9, 115, 128, 137 abstract objects arguments to God from abstract objects 94, 179–81, 182–3, 185 co-eternal with God 9, 129, 185 created 6–7, 9–10, 26–7, 61–2, 99–100 nature of 1–2, 3, 21, 51, 172 abstract/concrete distinction 65, 94–5n.

2, 97, 100, 107, 108, 170–2, 186, 188, 192 Adams, Robert 94, 124n. 7 adverbial theory 187, 194–5 Anderson, James 88 Aquinas, Thomas 57, 123n. 1, 176 Armstrong, David 144, 173 aseity-sovereignty doctrine 1–4, 7–8, 15, 38–9, 65, 81, 143–4, 161 see also God, aseity; God, creator of abstract objects Augustine 2, 32, 65 Azzouni, Jody 119–20, 132, 139, 190 Baggett, David 8 Balaguer, Mark 116, 127–8, 138 Båve, Arvid 122–3, 139 Bealer, George 12, 60, 95n. 11 Beneceraff, Paul 182 Biggest Bang 9, 77 bootstrapping worry 4, 10–11, 32, 62–3, 68–9, 75–7, 176, 185, 187 Brentano, Franz 69 causal theory of knowledge 182–3 causation 61–2, 171–2, 184, 186, 189–90, 192 Chihara, Charles 125n. 14, 188–9 Chisholm, Roderick 144–5 conceptualism 173, 178–9 concretism 116

Copan, Paul 9–10 cosmological argument 150–1, 163, 166–8 counterpossibles 36–7, 45, 46 Craig, William Lane 9–10, 14–15, 158 Crane, Tim 90–1 creation, doctrine of biblical passages on creation 7–8, 18n.

13, 23–4, 40, 44, 113–15, 127, 134, 137, 152–3, 162 rationality of 92–3 Davidson, Matthew 7, 68 Davison, Scott 8 deflationary theory of reference 122–3, 139–40 deflationary theory of truth 41, 48, 69–70, 101, 109, 110, 121–2, 147–8, 157–8, 165 deity theories 105, 106nn. 1, 2, 108 dependency problem 3–4, 6–7, 11, 26–7, 44, 48, 51, 190, 192–3 Divers, John 84 divine conceptualism see theistic activism; possible worlds, as divine thoughts/ ideas; and propositions, as divine thoughts/ideas Dummett, Michael 121 emanation 26, 31, 43, 44, 66, 108 exemplification 54, 60, 69, 75–6, 137 fictionalism 13, 117–18, 127–8, 131–2, 133, 135, 138–9, 173, 174, 177, 179, 180, 188–9, 190–1, 193 Field, Hartry 116, 125n. 9, 131–2, 138, 173, 190 figuralism 161, 162, 166, 188, 193 Fine, Kit 42, 184 Frege, Gottlob 58, 87, 116

208

Index

God aseity 113–15, 127, 132–3, 134, 137, 152–3, 160, 161–2, 166 see also aseity-sovereignty doctrine creator of abstract objects 2–4, 6–7, 8–10, 61–2, 175–6, 184, 186–7 see also creation, doctrine of; dependency problem creator of His own nature 8, 10–11, 62 freedom in creating 9–10, 31, 151 see also emanation necessary existence 1–2, 3, 22–3, 44, 48, 97, 160, 168, 183 see also ontological argument omnipotence 25–6 omniscience 32–3, 43, 65 worthy of worship 1 see also ultimacy problem Gödel, Kurt 173 Gould, Paul 11 Grayling, A. C. 109 Hellman, Geoffrey 189 Hofweber, Thomas 120 Inconsistent Triad 2–15, 81–2, 97, 100, 107 indispensability argument 101, 116–23, 130, 131–2, 134, 138–40, 144–6, 148–9, 160–1 Inwagen, Peter van 6–7, 12–13, 49, 61, 83, 145, 186 Jackson, Frank 174 Jubien, Michael 55, 63n. 12 Katz, Jerrold 135–6n. 3 Korhonen, Anssi 53 Kotarbiński, Tadeusz 116 Kripke, Saul 119–20 Leftow, Brian 2, 3, 13–14, 99, 105, 106n. 1, 108, 154n. 4 Lewis, C. S. 78 Lewis, David 83, 85, 91, 95n. 6, 95n. 8, 107, 109, 145, 154nn. 2–4, 174 Locke, John 56, 57, 58 Loux, Michael 60, 86, 89, 144

Lycan, William 83–4 mathematical objects 40, 117–18, 131–2, 133, 135, 138–9, 145, 149, 179–80, 188–9 McGrath, Matthew 63n. 7 Meinong, Alexius 69 Melia, Joseph 154n. 7, 173, 190–1 Menzel, Christopher 8–11, 18n. 14, 51, 59, 93, 185 Merricks, Trenton 108–9 Moore, G. E. 52 Moreland, J. P. 63n. 13 Morris, Thomas 8–11, 18n. 14, 51, 59, 93, 185 multiverse 168 naturalism 105, 163–4, 169–70, 186, 189, 193–4 necessary beings 1–4, 9, 113, 151–2, 176 necessary truths 27, 38–9, 97–8, 182–3 see also ontological argument necessity, conventional 24–5, 42 Nelson, Everett 49 Nicene Creed 49, 114 nominalism 12–15, 89–90 see also deflationary theory of reference; deflationary theory of truth; fictionalism; ontological economy; possible worlds; proposition ontological argument 28–30, 39, 41, 48, 97, 107 ontological commitment 13, 101, 119–23, 133, 134, 139–40, 166, 188, 190 ontological economy 13–14, 19n. 23, 87–8, 91 perfect being theology 28–9, 150–3 Philo 114, 123–4n. 3, 134, 162 Pickavance, Timothy 63n. 13 Plantinga, Alvin 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 17n. 6, 28–9, 48, 51, 52, 64n. 17, 82, 86, 87–8, 94, 95n. 5, 95n. 7, 102, 106n.

3, 108, 110, 179–81 Plato 32, 115, 134 platonic theism 5–8, 11–12, 61–2 platonism 2, 4, 10, 17n. 5, 90 see also

Index platonic theism; possible worlds; problem of universals; proposition; realism argument for 29–30, 41–2, lightweight 124n. 7, 131, 188 theological objections to 14, 40, 42, 115 possible worlds arguments for/against 83–4, 89–90, 101–2, 104–5, 109, 110 as divine thoughts/ideas 89, 105 intentionality 85–6 necessity 85 objectivity 85 plenitude 86–7 relevance 86, 92–3 Potter, Michael 125n. 10 Prior, A. N. 101, 108–9 problem of universals 2, 115–16, 129–30, 131, 140, 144–5, 191n. 2 properties 6, 12, 32, 60–1 see also bootstrapping worry; theistic activism propositionalism 21–3, 32, 40, 42, 45, 65–6 see also platonism propositions arguments for/against 41–2, 72, 82–3, 101, 103–4, 109, 147–8, 155–6, 158–9, 187 as divine thoughts/ideas 6, 8, 9, 11, 31–2, 44–5, 49–50, 58–9, 60–1, 70, 72, 74, 77–9, 87–9, 105, 185, 194 intentionality 23, 52–9, 67–8, 69, 70–1, 72–4, 85–6, 98 necessity 85 objectivity 85 plenitude 86–7 Pythagoras 115 Quine, W. V. O. 13, 101, 120, 134–5, 173, 193 realism 19n. 19, 90–2, 100, 108, 127–8, 175–6, 184–5, 187, 188 see also platonism; problem of universals reism 116

209

Rodriquez-Pereyra, Gonzalo 184 Rosen, Gideon 90, 171, 173, 189 Runia, David 124n. 3 Russell, Bertrand 1, 52, 53 Searle, John 91, 95n. 13 Shalkowski, Scott 17n. 13, 84 struthioism 173, 176–7, 187–8, 190, 193 substance Aristotelian 11, 60–1, 62, 76 bare particular theory 60 bundle theory 59–60 Swinburne, Richard 96n. 14 theism 2–5, 22, 33–4, 94, 169–70, 189 theistic activism 5, 8–11, 18n. 14, 21, 22, 30–3, 36, 42–3, 51–2, 59–63, 185, 186 theistic ideaism 21–2, 33–4, 38, 40 see also divine conceptualism theistic propositionalism 22, 33–4, 38, 40 theory evaluation 84–7, 102–3 tokenism 173, 178, 195 truthmaker principle 144, 146, 158 Twardowski, Kazimierz 116 ultimacy problem 3, 43–4, 62, 74n. 2, 100, 185 Vallicella, William 54 Walls, Jerry 8 Walton, Kendall 118 Weaver, Richard 2 Welty, Greg 11, 88 Willard, Dallas 63n. 14 Wittgenstein, Ludwig 56 Wolfson, Harry Austryn 115 Wolterstorff, Nicholas 6–7, 49, 79n. 1 Yablo, Steven 161, 162, 166, 173, 174, 179, 180, 188, 190, 193 Yandell, Keith 37 Zagzebski, Linda 37